Parents, grandparents, students, business people and other community members listened to school officials spend about 45 minutes explaining the school system's financial struggles and "unsustainable" path of deficit spending.

Then, they gave school officials a piece of their mind.

Dozens of people made their way to the microphone and spent two hours telling school officials they had made a mistake and begging them to reverse the decision.

"You and the board are on the verge of destroying one of the best school systems in the state of Alabama," one Spain Park High School mother told Superintendent Andy Craig, who stood at the microphone and took the brunt of the criticism.

Several parents asked if the forum tonight was a waste of time because school officials already have made up their minds or if there was any plan to do something else.

Craig said he has been evaluating possible variations of the plan to eliminate bus service, but some of those seem less plausible now. For example, officials with the Alabama Department of Education have informed him that Hoover cannot charge a fee for students to ride the bus, he said.

He is still exploring whether it would be possible for a private company to contract with parent-teacher organizations to provide bus service and charge interested parents a fee, he said. He also has been examining the possibility of phasing in the bus cuts in a more gradual manner over a longer period of time, he said.

"I'm taking the feedback, looking at alternatives. That's the point of this," Craig said. He can't make a promise that he will ask the school board to reverse its decision, "but I can assure you your voices are being heard," Craig said.

However, as of right now, the action that has been approved by the school board "is the plan going forward," Craig said.

"This decision has been excruciating for me," he said. He knows it creates additional hardships and families and bus drivers, he said.

However, "we've got a deficit that is not sustainable," he said. "We've got capital improvements to come that we're not in a position to absorb. There are no simple solutions."

The city of Hoover for many years allocated 16 percent of its sales tax revenues for the school system, plus building permit "front-door" fees. But former Mayor Tony Petelos and the City Council quit giving 16 percent of sales tax revenues to the city in 2005 when they learned the school system would receive $85 million from a Jefferson County bond issue.

Instead, city officials chose to give a flat amount to the school system, which for the past five years (including the current fiscal year) has been $2 million.

One parent said Craig should have more backbone like former Superintendent Connie Williams, who was fired in 2006 after calling out city officials for taking money from the school system.

David Fox, a parent from Bluff Park, asked Craig specifically what he has done to seek more funding from the city.

Craig said he has numerous discussions with Mayor Gary Ivey throughout the year and understands that the city has experienced the same poor economic conditions that have hit the school board hard.

"In my discussions with him, I don't think we should reasonably anticipate that money will be returned to the fullest extent it has been in the past," Craig said.

He believes there is potential the city will be able to increase funding at some point, he said. However, he doesn't believe that it would be a single solution to solve the school system's problems, he said.

Craig said he is not going to publicly threaten any city official or try to humiliate them to get more funding from them.

One parent told Craig that "it might be time to beg."

Fox said Hoover parents and community members need to unite to let the mayor and City Council know how strongly people feel about the funding cuts to the school board. "We have no intention of re-electing city councilmen who don't place value in our schools," he said.

Catrena Norris Carter, a single mother with three children in Hoover schools, thanked school board member Derrick Murphy for voting no on the school bus cuts and warned other board members not to give him a hard time for his stand.

She criticized the other board members for making Craig take the heat for the school bus cuts.

"This wasn't a one-man decision," she said. "You guys work for us, and if we have to clean house, I don't care if it takes five years or if it takes 10 years," we'll get it done, she said.

Parent Jennifer Jordan said she doesn't understand how the Hoover City Council has $2 million in its budget this year to spend on putting artificial turf on an athletic field at Berry Middle School but no more money to go toward academics or school buses in Hoover schools.

Numerous parents expressed concerns that eliminating school buses will increase traffic at the schools because of all the additional cars and criticized school officials for making their decision before doing traffic studies.

Craig said school officials plan to do those traffic studies in this coming school year and are trying to find ways to minimize traffic problems and help parents get children to more than one school, such as staggered start times. School officials also are considering expanding their after-school program to include middle schools.

Other parents expressed concerns about safety, saying studies have shown that students are much more likely to be killed in accidents while driving to and from school than riding in a school bus. Parent Michelle Osborne asked Craig if he could put a price tag on her children's lives. Craig responded that he obviously could not.

Other parents asked whether consolidating bus stops would help save money. Craig said they might gain some efficiency with that, but he doesn't think it would have enough impact to generate significant savings.

The school system has been hit with across-the-board losses in revenue, Craig said.

Not only did Hoover schools have funding cuts from the city, he said. Changes in state education funding models hit Hoover schools hard about 10 years ago, with a $6 million reduction in 2003, Craig said. The state funding models have continued to deteriorate in the past five years, he said.

Property tax revenues for Hoover schools in years past were growing about 9 percent per year but have been in decline the past three years, Craig said. With the decline in interest rates in recent years, investment income has fallen from about $7 million a year in 2008 to less than $500,000 a year now, Craig said.

Total revenues have fallen from $170 million in 2008 to $152 million in 2012, Chief Financial Officer Cathy Antee said. That's a decline from $13,715 per student in 2008 to $11,356 per student in 2012, she said.

At the same time, Hoover schools have added about 1,000 students since 2008, Antee said.

School officials have taken numerous steps to cut costs, she said. Recurring expenditures have fallen from $172 million in 2008 to $152 million in 2012, she said. Total expenditures are down $59 million since 2008, she said. "That's a staggering and significant reduction in expenditures," she said.

Those cost reductions have included reducing the number of teachers, which increases class sizes slightly, she said. School officials also have saved money by refinancing and restructuring their debt, cutting utility costs, cutting the equivalent of 40 full-time support staff in the past four years and maximizing the use of existing facilities rather than building a lot of new ones, Antee said.

However, Craig said current growth patterns in the city will create the need for a new school within five years.

Antee said school officials hoped that as the economy rebounded, they would be able to return to past levels of funding. Unfortunately, that has not been the case, she said.

Cutting school buses should help the system save about $2.5 million a year, officials said.